A standard motor-vehicle door latch has a housing mounted on the door edge and formed with a recess into which is engageable a bolt projecting from the respective door post. A fork is pivotal in the housing between a latching position engaging around the bolt and holding it solidly in the recess and a freeing position permitting the bolt to enter and leave the recess. A latch pawl engageable with the fork can retain it in the latched position. The latch pawl in turn is controlled via appropriate levers both from an inside door handle and an outside door handle, either of which can therefore operate the latch to allow the door to be opened. A locking mechanism can uncouple the outer door handle at least from the latch pawl.
Normally in the latched position of the door a surface of the latch pawl flatly contacts a surface of the latch fork in surface contact. This solidly retains the fork in position but poses some problems when it comes to opening the latch, as there is considerable sliding friction to overcome. Since the door is normally provided with a soft elastomeric seal that serves in the closed position to seal tightly around the door, to prevent the door from rattling, and to hold the latch tight, it is fairly difficult to slide the latch pawl off the latch fork to open the door. Even when the mutually contacting surface are both formed arcuate with centers of curvature at the pivot axis for the latch pawl, the pawl tends to stick on the fork.